ABSTRACT

Kneeling figures for boys reflects a change of taste in the more pious Catholic atmosphere of the Counter-Reformation. Towards the end of the sixteenth century, many re-conversions to Catholicism take place, tastes change and the reclining putto is no longer fashionable. These monuments discussed in Part IV illustrate a genre whose genesis was Polish but which owed its expression to influences from the South and, later, the West and North. The original motif of the reclining putto came from Italy, as did the early sculptors, yet there was no genre of child commemoration in Italy during the Renaissance period. Proving popular, especially among the educated elite, the custom spread from its centre of origin to peripheral areas, where its expression was adapted to serve different cultural values, thus demonstrating cultural exchange. The seventeenth century was a period of increasing difficulty, with political and social unrest and intermittent warfare.